Archive for December 2008

Newport News police have made two additional arrests in the murder of cab driver Mohammed Laktami. Antonio Lamar Williams, 23, and Christopher Deangelo Holloman, 20, were arrested at the Americans Best Value Inn in Portsmouth on Monday night around 8:30.

Both individuals each have been charged with murder, robbery, conspiracy, and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

The recent arrests now brings the total of individuals charged to five. 20 year-old Trevor Rashad Futrell, Shannon Denise Drewry, 20, and a 17 year-old male were all arrested on Sunday, November 30. All face several charges including murder and conspiracy.

Police say this crime was not a crime of opportunity but a planned event. The five individuals involved initially planned to rob a delivery driver from a Chinese restaurant and a call was actually placed, however the business was closed. A decision was made to then rob a Taxi driver. Two of the males physically conducted the robbery, but after the robbery and murder, the money was split between all involved.

Mohammed Laktami was shot and killed on Sunday, November 22 while conducting business as a North End cab driver on Marshall Avenue in Newport News. Mr. Laktami was a legal resident alien from Morocco working in Virginia to support his family that were still in Morocco. He had been a cab driver for two months.

Our Condolences to the Hassan Belfkir Family
Dear Friend ,
It is with deep sorrow and regret that the Moroccan Community in Central Florida announces the death of Mr. Hassan Belfkir. Hassan was the loving husband , devoted father , beloved brother . He is also the dear friend.
Hassan passed away from heart attack . He will be missed by all but will never be forgotten. Although he did not live a long life he lived a full one.

Three US aircraft carriers with strike groups, task forces and nuclear submarines have piled up in the waters of the Arabian Sea opposite the shores of India, Pakistan and Iran, and in the Persian Gulf.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the US began massing this formidable array of floating firepower at the outset of the Islamist terrorist attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last Wednesday, Nov. 26.

Tehran responded typically with a threat of retaliation should the Americans decide to use the Mumbai terrorist attack to hit Iran.

It is more likely, according to our military sources, that the Americans are on the ready in case the rising tensions between India and Pakistan over the New Delhi’s charge of Pakistani involvement in the Mumbai atrocity explodes into an armed clash on their border.

This is indicated by the units now deployed:

1. the USS John C. Stennis, which carries 80 fighter-bombers and 3,200 sailors and airmen and leads a strike group..

This carrier joins two already there, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which patrols the northern Arabian Sea, part of whose strike group cruises opposite Iran’s southern coast; and the USS Iwo Jima, which carries a large marine contingent on board.

2. New to these waters, according to DEBKAfile’s military sources, is the Destroyer Squadron 50/CTF 55, which has two task forces: Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) for strikes against warships and the rapid deployment of marines to flashpoint arenas; and Mine Countermeasures Division 31, which stands ready to prevent New Delhi or Islamabad from mining the Arabian Sea routes connecting their ports. Those routes are vital waterways for US marine traffic supporting the war in Afghanistan.

3. To manage this armada, the command and control vessel, USS Mount Whitney, has been brought over from the Mediterranean.

4. Four nuclear submarines.

The arrival of the southwest Asian marine patrol carrier Stennis and the Mount Whitney to the Arabian Sea opposite Iran’s shores set alarm bells ringing in Tehran. Our Iranian sources note that the Islamic republic’s rulers remember that after al Qaeda’s attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, the Americans did not only invade Afghanistan, but also Iraq and they fear a similar sideswipe.

The Iranian chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Ataoallah Salehi sounded a warning when he stated Sunday, Nov. 30: The “heavy weight” of enemy warships provides the Iranian side with an ideal opportunity for launching successful counter-attacks.